NTU Principal Lecturer discusses Gen X women's aging

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) women are female thought leaders, undertaking important research topics.

A new study by Nottingham Business School (NBS), part of Nottingham Trent University shows how Generation X women experience age in seven different ways, with Nottingham Trent University NBS Principal Lecturer in Marketing, Sharon-Marie Gillooley analysing the findings.

Personal age-related significance

The study took place over a period of three weeks, with 19 women with varying life circumstances (aged between 41 and 55) reflecting and reporting on day-to-day incidents of personal age-related significance using online diaries.

Analysis of more than 250 diary entries revealed seven intersecting, overlapping, and coinciding ‘frames’ of ageing that the researchers named Affective, Protest, Acceptance, Camouflage, Life-Stage, Inequities, and Inconsequence.

Studying Generation X females

Sharon-Marie shares more about the study: "The study is looking at Generation X females, so those born between 1965 and 1980 who are older than millennials, and younger than baby boomers, and how they perceive their age identity. So, is it chronological age, date of birth, age or do today we see it differently. So the research suggests that how these Generation X females frame their age is really fluid."

Perceiving age differently

Sharon-Marie highlights how these women perceive their age differently than their chronological age, so their date of birth age.

"It's more how they think, feel and act, and that perception, that their age identity is quite dynamic depending on who they're interacting with or what they do. So this goes over seven frames we found in this study. Going from protest - 'I'm not telling you my age', through to camouflage age where they consume to achieve a certain ideal age, either using botox, filler, clothing or make-up, and those who see age as totally inconsequential, the inconsequence age. This is where they actually forget their chronological age, it's totally irrelevant to their age identity. It's becoming increasingly difficult to categorise and pin down the age of these Generation X females. This generation feels like it doesn't conform to age and gender related roles that have socially constructed rules. So the age identity of these female Generation X diarists is not a demographic chronological, it's actually a psychographic, individually experienced," commented Sharon-Marie.

Sharon-Marie is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Marketing, the Course Leader for the MSc Marketing suite, the Learning and Teaching Department Representative for Marketing and Fellow of the Chartered Insititute of Marketing.

Having a positive impact on people, business and society

Nottingham Business School’s (NBS) purpose is to provide research and education that combines academic excellence with positive impact on people, business and society.

Read the full article.